Dr. Jill Biden, the second lady of the United States, recently visited USC to learn more about the Building Capacity project. Read the story on the event. And click here for pictures of the roundtable discussion.
Our Building Capacity team is happy to welcome several new university partners who are showing their commitment to supporting military students in public schools.
• San Diego State University (SDSU) has joined USC in placing Master’s students in Social Work, School Psychology and School Counseling as interns in military-connected schools that are part of the eight-district consortium. Together, SDSU and USC has over 60 graduate level interns in schools this year.
• Undergraduates in the University of California, San Diego’s (UCSD) Partners at Learning (PAL) service-learning program will be serving as mentors and tutors for military-connected students in pre-K through 12th grade.
• Our interns have been trained by the FOCUS program at UCLA to implement a school-based, modified component of the FOCUS curriculum, which helps military families deal with the issues of deployment, reintegration and changing family relationships. UCLA’s School of Engineering and Applied Science is also making its online tutoring program available for free to up to 10 middle and high schools in the Building Capacity consortium, with the support of the Broadcom communications company.
• Our Navy and Marine school liaison officers are helping us bring the Navy’s Family Readiness Express, a massive RV designed to support military members and their families, to schools in our consortium. Check out this Special Issue of our newsletter on the van’s visit to Oceanside. We are also working with the liaisons to create “transition” rooms at many of the schools in our consortium. Staffed by military parent volunteers or school liaison officers, these rooms serve as a welcoming refuge for incoming students and parents who have questions about academics, social activities and community services. Stay tuned for updates on this exciting project.
• Top-notch training has also been provided this fall to all of our interns to make sure they have the skills and knowledge to prevent and respond to problems within their schools. Drs. Ron Astor and Marleen Wong presented free workshops on school safety and bullying. Check our October newsletter for a feature on this workshop. Also J. Kevin Cameron, a Canadian expert on traumatic stress, conducted sessions on Threat Risk Assessment.
We're excited to be working with all of these partners in Year 2!
Building Capacity is a partnership between eight military-connected school districts and USC. Funded by a $7.6 million grant from the Department of Defense Educational Activity (DoDEA), the project is creating sustainable and replicable infrastructures for data-driven models of responsive and supportive schools. Staff, students, and parents are being empowered to use evidence to improve school climate for military students.
Quick Links
- California Healthy Kids Survey
- Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans and Military Families, USC School of Social Work
- Hamovitch Center for Science in the Human Services, USC School of Social Work
- USC School of Social Work
- School Liaison Officers, Camp Pendleton, Marine Corps
- School Liaison Officers, Naval Base, San Diego
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